Schroeder ousts Kohl in German elections

A victorious Schroeder, right, celebrates with SPD leader Oskar Lafontaine at party headquarters in Bonn

BONN, Germany (CNN) -- For the first time in modern German history, a sitting chancellor was voted out of office Sunday when Gerhard Schroeder and his Social Democratic Party (SPD) soundly defeated veteran Christian Democrat leader Helmut Kohl.

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The landmark vote brings to an end 16 years of Kohl's conservative-oriented government. A Christian Democratic Union (CDU) spokesman conceded defeat almost immediately following the first TV projections.

"The results of this election are a bitter defeat for us. But as good democrats, we will respect the people's decision," said CDU party secretary Peter Hintze.

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He thanked Kohl for all he had accomplished in his four terms in office, specifically the unification of communist East Germany with the West in 1990.

SPD supporters celebrate Schroeder's win

Even though the SPD's victory was clear immediately after polls closed, it was unclear whether Schroeder's party would be strong enough to form a coalition with the Greens, or whether the SPD would have to lead the Christian Democrats in a so-called grand coalition.

Schroeder would be the chancellor in either scenario, analysts said.

Schroeder's victory signals not only the changing of the guard in Germany, but also the changing of a generation. Although only 14 years younger than Kohl, Schroeder will become the first postwar German chancellor with no memory of World War II.

Witty, brisk and telegenic, Schroeder had mounted a media-savvy campaign that capitalized on snappy sound bites and his appealing looks, offering voters a refreshing departure from the plodding and long-winded Kohl.

Schroeder also steered the left-leaning SPD into a more business-friendly stance, something he called "the New Center," that came complete with a slogan heralding "the power of the new."

Once viewed as a maverick and not widely liked in the party, Schroeder nevertheless promised that there was no risk in making him the party's candidate, and that there would be no surprises.

Kohl concedes

"I've learned to work in a disciplined manner and to tell the difference between what's desirable and what's feasible," he said last spring.

'Careful and clever'

Among his campaign promises was the assurance that there would be no new taxes. Schroeder opposed Kohl's proposed reforms to the German tax system -- which is badly skewed and in dire need of repair -- but is generally reckoned to have done so for political reasons rather than because he opposed reform itself.

Schroeder also reassured voters that he would continue Germany's current foreign policy, although his personal style and perhaps even his priorities will almost certainly be different.

Schroeder initially questioned the installation of the euro as the currency of Europe, but more recently has said he would support its adoption.

Toward the end of the campaign, when Kohl was emphasizing his own foreign policy expertise, Schroeder tried to reassure voters by saying he would adopt the 19th century strategy of legendary German chancellor Otto von Bismarck by being "careful and clever."

Schroeder was one of five children born into a blue-collar family in the Lower Saxony town of Mossenberg. He was raised by his mother, who cleaned houses to support her family after her husband was killed in World War II in 1944, the year Schroeder was born.

Once a Marxist

He earned a law degree and at one time was a Marxist, but he drifted into the SPD and became active in its youth wing during the 1970s.

He wears dark suits and has a taste for Cuban cigars and, having been married four times, pretty women. Schroeder, who has no children, recently married journalist Doris Koepf, who is 19 years his junior.

Schroeder is known for his wit, which was on display during a trip to Israel last spring that was calculated to show off his foreign policy abilities.

During a speech, Schroeder alluded to an incident that had taken place the week before when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu angrily canceled a dinner with British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook after Cook criticized the Israelis' policy on Jewish settlements.

Schroeder said he was grateful to be in Israel "and especially that I got dinner last night."